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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into Best Free Online Surveys the Best Free Online Surveys field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Best Free Online Surveys considered "off-line" has become a subject Best Free Online Surveys of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex Best Free Online Surveys than a simple Best Free Online Surveys "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an Best Free Online Surveys "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Best Free Online Surveys He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Free Online Surveys some Best Free Online Surveys circumstances, and Best Free Online Surveys that the blurring of the distinctions between Best Free Online Surveys the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and Best Free Online Surveys mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that Best Free Online Surveys was employed Best Free Online Spyware Remover by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Best Free Online Surveys legal and regulatory pressures Best Free Online Surveys to reduce Cell Phone Best Plans the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", Best Free Online Surveys with Best Free Online Surveys a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the Best Free Online Surveys distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen Best Free Online Surveys as just as "real" as their off-line Best Free Online Surveys counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Best Free Online Surveys to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. Best Free Online Surveys He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions Best Free Online Surveys of the desktop metaphor Best Free Online Surveys with its Best Free Online Surveys desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Free Online Surveys a user name Best Free Online Surveys and a Best Free Online Surveys password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Best Free Online Surveys where "All Best Free Online Surveys items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
